


Fan Critic

by Scarpath



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Yuuri is a critic, hidden identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22191598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarpath/pseuds/Scarpath
Summary: It started as a fan blog. Then, somehow, Yuuri became the most well known figure skating critic.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 10
Kudos: 222





	Fan Critic

Yuuko was normally the person Yuuri went to for all things to do with fawning over Victor Nikiforov. However, with his recent move to America, Yuuri found that their schedules rarely aligned for more than a five minute talk. Yuuri needed to rant about how awesome Victor was!

It all started as a fanblog. A Victor fanblog, though it only took one post for Yuuri to decide that felt too creepy. He started talking about other skaters, too.

Then it started to change, slowly at first. Yuuri would put one or two small criticisms in his posts. This one skater went into his triple axel weak, he needed to have positioned his arm a little to the side. That skater pushed his stamina too far, no wonder he fell.

Before he knew it, Yuuri’s skating fanblog turned into a critic page. He still praised everything right in a skate, but he was merciless on mistakes. His anonymity on the internet gave him confidence, and he even criticized parts of Victor’s skating!

Of course, for the first year or so, he hardly had any followers. That was fine, his blog had long since become a way for him to destress while picking over other skaters. Then, the unexpected happened.

In an interview, the fifth place skater in the Cup of China admitted that he’d improved some by following the advice skating critic Katsudamn gave on his blog.

Katsudamn, Yuuri’s blog, exploded. He was no longer some baseless guy bashing on skating, he was a critic who’s opinion actually helped professional skaters.

It was insane. He’d gained thousands of followers overnight! He tried to keep things the same, but eventually realized he could turn this into a second job of sorts. Most of the blog stayed, he just added a section for a patreon.

For those who paid him more than ten dollars a month, they could send him clips of skating, and ask him to break it down.

Suddenly, Yuuri was making a good wage just from his skating blog. Sure, sponsors still covered all his skating costs, but his blog covered his living costs now. It was a huge relief...

Until Yuuri was sent a clip of his own skating. He’d mostly left his own skating untouched, so it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Still. At least he’d been sent one of his better skates.

It was surprisingly hard to be completely neutral about his own skating. In the end, he had to concede to what he was often told-

_ Kastuki is his own worst enemy. If he can get over his nerves, this will go from one of his best skates to one of his worst. _

Admitting to himself that he could do better, that it really was just the nerves probably should have changed things. All it did was help him land a few more jumps when it counted.

Nearly five years had passed after he’d started the blog. He was still the only one who knew the identity of Katsudamn. It was funny to see people try to figure out who he was. Only once had he seen someone get it right. Even his roommate had no clue.

And he was thankful for it, after the Grand Prix Final of tears. He’d bombed it so bad, clearly no one would be able to take such a crappy skater seriously as a critic.

Maybe he should drop the skating entirely. Or even just take a break. He could focus on the blog. It was doing really well, unlike his skating.

So that’s what he did. He dropped his coach, said goodbye to his friends, and ran like a dog with his tail between his legs all the way back home.

A patreon asked him to break down his own awful performance. That was probably the hardest post yet. In the end, he just went with something simple and probably very unsatisfying.

_ I can’t judge that. That was not just sloppy skating, that was not him doing his best. He failed, he let it get to his head. Then he failed some more. Good skating won’t come from someone stuck in his own head like that. _

It was actually a little relieving posting that. Even if some of his fans and some of his followers got into an argument over it.

Of course, not long into his self imposed exile, Yuuri decided to skate instead of watching his Idol win the world championships. And he skated Victor’s free, at almost the same time as the man himself.

And Yuuko’s triplets uploaded it.

And he was asked to cover it as Katsudamn.

He nearly ignored the message asking him to do it, but he needed to keep up with the blog. He’d never failed before, he wouldn’t now.

_ Kastuki chose an interesting piece to skate here. Clearly, it worked for him. This is probably the best skating we’ve seen from him yet. Clean, precise. He didn’t try for quads he can’t land, but he landed each and every one he did try cleanly. If anyone doubts that Kastuki is a Victor Nikiforov fan, they simply need to watch this. _

_ As for mistakes... _

After breaking down his own skating, Yuuri went even deeper into self-exile. He only turned his computer on for the blog. Rarely left his room. He was mortified.

Then it snowed, and he went to shovel the walkways. And was tackled by a dog. A certain skater’s dog. And then Yuuri had a new coach, and a new person to hide his blog from.

And boy was it hard to keep his blog hidden from Victor. Victor was constantly bringing it up; constantly bursting into Yuuri’s space when he was working. Yuuri only managed to keep it hidden until shortly after the Cup of China.

Victor had burst into his room, and Yuuri forgot that he still had his laptop open on his desk. Victor had wanted to show him... his own criticism on his skate. So he’d gone straight to the laptop.

Where Yuuri had the blog open, and was looking at the responses to his post.

Victor had looked between Yuuri and the laptop multiple times, each glance making Yuuri more nervous.

“Yuuuuuri! You’re Kastudamn? Why didn’t you ever tell me!”

Yuuri had wanted to  _ die _ . “Ka-kastudamn was, uhm, well at first it was just a fanblog... but then I was breaking down both the good and the bad, then everyone wanted advice, and it just grew... and I didn’t want my own subpar skating to effect the blog.”

Victor hadn’t accepted that.

“You said it yourself multiple times! You weren’t skating at your best. Now that you are, you should be proud to share who you are!”

Yuuri just shook his head. “I feel a lot more confident behind the anonymity. No one knows if I’m a skater, a coach, or just a very dedicated fan. I can post without worrying about how it’ll affect my reputation as a skater. I’ll reveal when I retire, I plan to go into coaching and it’ll help a lot then.”

“It won’t hurt your skating, Yuuri. I know it!” Victor seemed quite sure of what he was saying, but Yuuri...

“I’ll  _ consider _ telling early, but you can’t say anything, okay?”

Victor had deflated at that, but responded with “I won’t, as long as you’re actually considering it.”

Then they’d hugged, and everything was fine. Yuuri thought about it, nearly did say something a few times. But he didn’t.

Victor still wore the ring Yuuri had gotten him anyways, even as the blog was their most recurring minor fight.

Then, the perfect moment struck. A reporter actually asked him about Kastudamn for the first time. It really was amazing no one had asked him before, and he decided to reward Victor’s patience.

“Katsudamn? What about him?”

“What do you think about his assessments of your skating? He is typically much harsher on you than other skaters.”

“Well, they do say that ‘you are your own worst critic’ after all. I wasn’t ready to reveal just who I was, so when I was asked to assess my own skating, well, I did what I could to be neutral... but I ended up harsh against my own mistakes quite often. Then when Victor found out about the blog, he helped a lot with the reviews for my own skating.”

With that said, Yuuri left the stunned crowd before they could fully process what he meant. It was a moment often tagged as #micdrop when the interview was posted online.

Yuuri Katsuki was Katsudamn. The world had mourned over missing such an obvious sign as the names, and wondered how they’d never figured it out before. Yuuri just laughed.

Katsudamn grew even further in popularity after that. By this point, Yuuri was starting to fill the role Victor once had. The only person who actually rivaled him was the younger Yuri. Even then, Yuuri had pulled mostly ahead, rarely losing.

The top skater, who was also the top skating critic. 

And to think it all started as a Victor Nikiforov skating fanblog.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments fuel me. Please, let me know what you think!


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